Tom Hanks Blackface Video Criticized By Conservatives As Racist

March 21, 2012, 8:45 pm

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Tom Hanks is facing criticism over a 2004 video, which conservatives are calling racist and hypocritical.

The clip, unearthed by the Daily Caller, features the Oscar winner and Eagles rocker Glenn Frey at a fundraiser for St. Matthew’s Parish School. During the event, they poke fun at right wingers for being culturally insensitive, while -- ironically -- investment banker James Montgomery roamed around the stage dressed in blackface.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is as close to diversity as we’ll get at St. Matthew’s," said Frey.

"A celebrity in our midst. Who would have though that Bill O'Reilly would join us?" joked Hanks.

Conservatives are now calling on Barack Obama to drop Hanks as the narrator for the President's documentary, "The Road We've Traveled."

After the video was released, Hanks released an apology.

"I was blindsided when one of the parents got up on the stage in a costume that was hideously offensive then and is hideously offensive now,” said the actor. "What is usually a night of food and drink for a good cause was, regrettably, marred by an appalling few moments."

Hanks, who starred in 2011 Best Picture nominee "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," is set to appear in the film "Cloud Atlas," this October.

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'Walk of Shame' Ad Ruled 'Not Sexist or Demeaning.'

March 21, 2012, 8:49 pm

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Ever Faced the Walk of Shame? This is the actual title of a U.K. TV ad that has been ruled by the Advertising Standards Authority as not "sexist or demeaning to women."



The ad is for upscale U.K. department store chain Harvey Nichols. It features a bunch of women in skintight dresses and disheveled hair walking home in the wee hours of the morning following a night of casual sex. After we see these seemingly embarrassed girls stumble in their heels, trying to avoid eye contact with onlookers, we are given the image of a beautiful and elegantly dressed socialite who feels confident after having casual sex. It must be because of her Harvey Nichols outfit, right?

The 2011 Christmas ad received complaints for being sexist and offensive; however, the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority has recently ruled that it is neither of these things and refuses to ban it from being broadcast.



In response to the controversy, The Guardian reports that representatives for Harvey Nichols explained:

The idea was to show that women did not have any reason to be ashamed, that society tended to be judgmental and that a woman's choice of outfit could playfully show that she could also have a "stride of pride".

Because the ad included a woman that "appeared neat and confident" instead of only showing women who were "disheveled and uncomfortable," the advertising watchdog concluded that:

We considered the ad did not, therefore, reinforce negative stereotypes of women generally, or women who chose to have casual sex in particular, nor that it was sexist or demeaning to women. We ... [also] considered the ad did not imply that lower-class women who had one-night stands should feel shame whilst more wealthy women should feel proud, or that it mocked less wealthy women who did not have 'model' figures.

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Who Went Home on Survivor: One World?

March 21, 2012, 8:58 pm

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The superior tribe (Salani) won the reward challenge of ice cream (and it looked delicious). Colton and Alicia consistently personally attacked Christina, while Tarzan once again forgot her name. Both tribes were sent to tribal council.

No one was voted out, but Colton was medically removed after being diagnosed with appendicitis. He held onto his immunity idol, which immensely pissed off Alicia.



And, the two tribes are now merged! Discuss. I am thrilled.

Source: Me and my tv

The Wanted's Tom 'Teaching Brooklyn Beckham Guitar'

March 21, 2012, 8:58 pm

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Tom Parker from The Wanted is apparently teaching David Beckham's eldest son Brooklyn how to play Oasis songs on the guitar.

Speaking to The Sun, Tom's bandmate Jay McGuiness revealed that Parker taught the 13-year old a few tunes during a soundcheck at one of The Wanted's US gigs.

He told the tabloid: "Tom taught Brooklyn how to play Wonderwall, which was a beautiful moment.

"He'd only just starting learning how to play three weeks before and is well into his rock music."

McGuiness continued: "He told us he likes music as well as football but he doesn't really know which way to go."

Jay went on to state that if Brooklyn does decide a career in music is for him, he would happily let him join The Wanted, adding: "I'd be more than happy to get him riffing on a guitar at one of our next shows."

Source: http://www.mtv.co.uk/news/the-wanted/352120-the-wanted-david-brooklyn-beckham-oasis-guitar

Spectacular Never Before Seen Titanic Images Give Insight Into The 'Unsinkable Ship'!

March 21, 2012, 9:17 pm

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Next month will mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

The wreck of the mammoth hull is a puzzle of corroded steel strewn across a thousand acres of the North Atlantic seabed, where it was discovered in 1985 by explorer Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel.

The ghostly images of the ship were captured at (WHOI) in Massachusetts by William Lange using a blown-up sonar survey map of the site to create a meticulously stitched-together mosaic that has taken months to construct.

This imagery is the result of an ambitious multi-million-dollar expedition undertaken in August to September 2010.

It was captured by three state-of-the-art robotic vehicles that flew at various altitudes above the abyssal plain in long, preprogrammed swaths.

“This is a game-changer,” said (NOAA) archaeologist James Delgado, the expedition’s scientist.

“In the past, trying to understand Titanic was like trying to understand Manhattan at midnight in a rainstorm—with a flashlight. Now we have a site that can be understood and measured, with definite things to tell us. In years to come this historic map may give voice to those people who were silenced, seemingly forever, when the cold water closed over them.”

click to embiggen

source
not really celeb news, but a creepy post maybe?

JJ Abrams builds a wall to prevent Star trek 2 leaks

March 24, 2012, 12:03 pm

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We knew director J.J. Abrams was upset about the photos and video that were leaked awhile back from his highly anticipated sequel ‘Star Trek 2’ (or if you prefer ‘Star Trek 12’). After all, even Zoe Saldana who plays Uhura mentioned this in her interview with MTV. But we didn’t know how angry he was until now.


Even with the high security measures that have already been implemented, Abrams was still unable to prevent the few photos that have already come out. He is so dead set on having no more leaks that he has built a blockage around the area where some outdoor location shooting is occurring. Don’t believe us? Well, here’s the photo proof below!

Abrams ordered 30 large shipping containers (the kind you see at ship yards and harbors) and literally built his own “Great Wall of Trek” in an attempt to prevent paparazzi from taking any more unauthorized footage. Of course, this won’t deter them. Instead, they have taken it up as a challenge and have promised that photos of this shot will come soon even if they have to get a large ladder to get it.

I do have to admire Abrams for his attempt for secrecy but unless filming is taken onto a soundstage and all camera phones are confiscated, I don’t really know how you can completely stop anything from coming out.

So what do you think about Abrams’ attempts? Are the unauthorized photos and videos spoiling the anticipation of ‘Star Trek 2’ for you?


Well wauwy i guess some more John Cho pic leaks seem unlikely so heres a random pic of your favorite actor that you've probably seen a hundred times already.

http://sciencefiction.com/2012/03/23/j-j-abrams-builds-wall-to-prevent-star-trek-2-leaks/

Israel Law Requires Magazines to Disclose Photoshopped Models

March 24, 2012, 12:03 pm

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A law passed Monday in Israel requires publications to disclose when models have been Photoshopped to appear thinner and bans ads from using underweight models, or models with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of lower than 18.5.

The law was first proposed March 5 and attempts to keep the fashion industry in check. Supporters hope that the new law will encourage the fashion industry to use healthy models, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The law applies to both male and female models.

"We want to break the illusion that model we see is real," Liad Gil-Har, assistant to the law's sponsor Dr. Rachel Adato, told the Associated Press.

Models would be required to produce medical reports that state they aren't malnourished (according to World Health Organization standards). According to WHO, anyone with a BMI below 18.5 indicated malnutrition. This means that a woman who is 5 feet, 8 inches must weigh at least 119 pounds.

However, critics of the legislation disagree with BMI as an indicator of malnutrition, since BMI only takes into account height and weight--not muscle mass or even sex. Some people can be healthy, naturally thin, and have a BMI under 18.5, while others may be very muscular and fit and have a BMI that indicates they are overweight or even obese. For example, a guy who is 6 feet, 1 inch and 190 pounds is considered "overweight," even though many guys at that height/weight are definitely not overweight.

Israeli model Adi Neumann, who has a BMI of 18.3, thinks the law is a good idea, but that it should focus on health, not weight.

"The purpose is very worthy. I saw people around me deteriorating. At the same time, it is important to look not only at height and weight, but also at general health, and fat and muscle percentage," Neumann said in a statement.

This may be the first legislation attempting to regulate the fashion industry, but it's not the first time underweight models have been frowned upon. In 2006, Giorgio Armani was the first premier designer to ban models with a BMI of under 18 (and/or a size 0), after the death of Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston. Reston died on November 15, 2006, of anorexia. She was the second model to die of an eating disorder in 2006 -- Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos died on August 2, 2006.

Other major designers have since banned the use of size 0 models, including fashion houses Prada and Versace.

The law is pretty cut and dried (perhaps too much so, say the critics) about models' actual weights, but less clear when it comes to disclosing digitally-altered photos. After all, if a publication adds a little definition to a model's abs, is it the same as making a 200-pound girl into a 115-pound girl? Does the publication still have to say it Photoshopped the pic, or can it scoot around the law?

Earlier this year the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority did ban a Photophopped ad of the actress Rachel Weisz who appeared in a print ad for cosmetics firm L'Oréal. UK authorities contended that the ad was misleading, because the image of Weisz had been digitally manipulated and misrepresented the results that the “anti-aging” moisturizing cream product could achieve. The ad was banned and L'Oréal Paris had to promise not use “post-production techniques in a way that misrepresented what was achievable using the advertised product.

Source

Doctor Who S7 Trailer Leaks

March 24, 2012, 12:03 pm

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The trailer premiered at a Doctor Who convention on the weekend. Supposedly it'll be officially released on Monday.

Source
looks like shit tbh

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THE NEXT 'FRIDAY' ?

March 24, 2012, 12:26 pm

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Is this the worst Eurovision song ever?



SAN Marino's Eurovision entry is taking the internet by storm — after the tiny republic released its cheesy tribute to Facebook. Crooned by hopeful Valentina Monetta, the pop tune is a three-minute love song to the social network. The matching video for Facebook Uh Oh Oh shows the blonde singer clicking on her laptop while singing lines such as: "Do you wanna play cyber sex again?"

Another line says: "If you want to come to my house, click me with your mouse." The song is the 2012 entry from the smallest country in the competition, which has a population of 30,000 and an area of just 24 square miles. The video has sparked speculation that the Italian enclave is deliberately trying to lose because the rules say the winner must host the following year's contest.

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this is... so bad it becomes INCREDIBLE

Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield out and about in NYC...

March 24, 2012, 12:35 pm

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Emma Stone strolling about with BF Andrew Garfield on March 23, 2012 in NYC.


Emma Stone and boyfriend Andrew Garfield were all smiles while taking an afternoon stroll on Friday after having lunch at a local New York City Restaurant.

The couple who are starring together in the new reboot of ‘Spiderman’ looked happy together as they held eachother and showed some major PDA.

During their stroll Emma and Andrew stopped by a bakery to pick up some treats and coffee.

It appears Emma is 100% blonde again, her hair was definitely lighter at WonderCon but was still a kind of strawberry blonde then. At least the weather is nice enough that Emma is wearing shorts, love those creamy legs, and that last pic is kind of adorable.



There is also a video...


What do you think about them as a couple? :P

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Hunger Games Star Shoots to Top of Action Heroine Hot List

March 24, 2012, 1:01 pm

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With her trusty bow and arrow, reality-show sharpshooter Katniss Everdeen drives The Hunger Games with a fierce tomboy energy rarely seen on the big screen. The teen hunter can nail a squirrel or split an apple from 100 yards away and she's quick to slam a guy against the wall when he announces his affections on national TV. But Katniss also comes to the gladiator bloodbath that is the Hunger Games fully loaded with compassion.

Powered by Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss portrayal, The Hunger Games is expected to generate Twilight-level box-office numbers — something that could bring a potential sea change in the way movie studios perceive the bankability of female action stars.

Dressed to kill, not to seduce, Katniss joins a long line of heroines who've made a mark in the guy-centric universe of action, sci-fi and horror. To celebrate these ass-kicking role models, past and present, Wired decided to revisit and update its brief history of the toughest women in movies, TV, comic books and video games.



Above:
Katniss Everdeen

Jennifer Lawrence became the obvious choice to play reluctant warrior Katniss Everdeen after picking up an Oscar nomination for Winter's Bone. In that 2010 indie flick, she showed smarts and determination as a teenager who fights for the survival of her impoverished Ozark Mountain family. By channeling a more athletic brand of understated heroism into Hunger Games' futuristic fantasy, Lawrence stays true to the literary source material. Katniss is not a people pleaser by nature. "I don't know how to make people like me," Katniss states early on in the film, which of course only makes her that much more likable. Her tough determination wins over couch potato nation with a combination of predatory cunning and righteous compassion, both on real-world theater screens and in her home country of Panem.


Lisbeth Salander (American film adaptation)

Following in the ferociously anti-social footsteps of Noomi Rapace, who portrayed the surly investigative hacker in the original Swedish film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Rooney Mara sustained plenty of tension under the direction of David Fincher. In place of credibility-defying superhero shenanigans, Rooney's Lisbeth used wile to avenge her tormenter in one of the year's most unsettling sequences.



Evelyn Salt

Angelina Jolie extended her reputation as one of the few women who can single-handedly carry an action movie when she starred in 2010's CIA-themed Salt. Jolie’s lithe Agent Salt races through the movie in hyper-athletic chase scenes and smack-downs that leave a trail of bloodied male antagonists in her wake.



Starbuck

Katee Sackhoff gender-switched the Battlestar Galactica character played by Dirk Benedict for the original TV series. When BSG rebooted in 2003, Sackhoff quickly overcame skeptics with her tomboy take on Kara “Starbuck” Thrace. The actress took flight as a tough, smart, complicated pilot able to kick ass and soul search with equal conviction.




Red Sonja

Introduced in Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian, swords-and-sorcery hellion Red Sonja got incarnated on screen in 1985 by great Dane Brigitte Nielsen. More recently, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez produced concept art picturing his girlfriend Rose McGowan as the chain-mailed warrior in a movie slated for 2011.





Jack, aka ‘Subject Zero’

The Mass Effect 2 role-playing game numbers among its myriad mutants the biotic "Subject Zero" Jack, who also shows up in Dark Horse Comics' Mass Effect Redemption spin-off.



Witchblade

Megan Fox grew up idolizing Top Cow's tough chick Witchblade, portrayed on TV by Yancy Butler. Especially popular in Japan in manga and anime form, Witchblade comics have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide since 1995. Top Cow Productions has spent years developing a motion picture about the woman gifted with a supernaturally high-powered glove.





Xena

Statuesque New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless filled out Xena’s tight skirts and leather vests with brawn and brains. The character first appeared in the 1995 to 1999 television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys before getting her own TV show. Making no apologies for Xena’s rib-cracking approach to problem-solving, Lawless remains a force to be reckoned with in Starz’s blood-and-sex-drenched Spartacus series.



Tank Girl

Birthed by Deadline magazine, this antisocial teenager harbored a fondness for machine guns and mutant kangaroos on the printed page before Lori Petty brought the character to life in 1995’s Tank Girl film.



Lara Croft (YES!!!!!!)

Videogame heroine Lara Craft became a pop-culture sensation when Angelina Jolie took on the character for one good Tomb Raider movie and a so-so sequel.



Cassie Hack

The star of Devil’s Due Publishing’s Hack/Slash graphic novel series, avenging feminist Cassie Hack takes sex ‘n’ violence for a wild ride aimed at ruining the lives of abusive creeps. Hollywood studios are currently circling a script that would propel Cassie to the big screen.



Ripley

Sigourney Weaver smoked, snarled and ripped the guts out of alien interlopers in the first three Alien movies. A feminist sci-fi icon, Ripley effectively upended the eye-candy apple cart for years to come.



Alice

Milla Jovovich cranked up her survivalist adrenaline for a swarm of gun-toting film adventures based on the Resident Evil videogames.



Mystique

Marvel Comics’ X-Men series features a bevy of strong female mutants, but in 2004’s X-2 movie, Rebecca Romijn’s portrayal of blue baddie Mystique gave form to what is arguably the greatest supervillain costume ever devised.



Catwoman (!!!!!!)

When it comes to campy superheroines, (Queen) Michelle Pfeiffer set the bar high when she cracked whips as Catwoman in 1992’s Batman Returns.



Black Widow

She’s a prim legal secretary. No, wait, she’s a martial arts expert! In Iron Man 2 and upcoming The Avengers, Scarlett Johansson plays both sides of her Marvel Comics character, posing as buttoned-down Natalie Rushman.



Sarah Connor

Linda Hamilton forever altered the muscle-to-fat ratio for machine-gun-wielding sex symbols when she played Sarah Connor in 1992’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. More than two decades later, petite Lena Headey gave the character her own twist on TV’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.



Neytiri

It could have gone so terribly, cheesily wrong, but Zoe Saldana’s performance as the alien Na’vi princess stole the show in James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster Avatar. Sensuous and fierce, the nature-loving Neytiri provided 3-D cinema with its first three-dimensional character.



Buffy

Introduced in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy Summers took off as a pop-culture phenomenon when Sarah Michelle Gellar reinvented the high-school adventuress for Joss Whedon’s 1997 to 2003 Buffy TV series. Long before True Blood and Twilight came calling, Buffy tapped an appetite for wit, sex and action.



Hit Girl

In the Kick-Ass movie, 11-year-old Chloe Grace Moretz ripped into her performance as a potty-mouthed superhero with enthusiasm rarely found in grown-up actors. For those who weren’t offended by the pre-adolescent blood-letting, Hit Girl proved that you’re never too young or too girly to dismember bad guys.



Lisbeth Salander (Swedish film adaptation)

This surly bisexual hacker, equally adept at combating corporate conspiracies and tattooing “I am a pig” on the bellies of abusive men, earned worldwide renown through the trilogy of novels by Stieg Larsson and a Swedish film franchise starring Noomi Rapace.



Elektra

Jennifer Garner, one of Hollywood’s most athletic actresses, played Marvel Comics’ Elektra Natchios in a 2005 movie. Although the film failed to catch fire with audiences, Garner at least accomplished the rare feat of snagging top billing in a superhero movie.



River Tam

In Joss Whedon’s space Western TV series Firefly and its big-screen sequel Serenity, Summer Glau attracted a cult following for the character that lives on in comic-book incarnations.



Sydney Bristow

In J.J. Abrams’ TV show Alias, Jennifer Garner pulled off high-octane action stunts on a weekly basis as she portrayed superspy Sydney Bristow.



Kate Austen (Are you fucking kidding me? No. Just...no)

On Lost, Evangeline Lilly brought a wary edge to her cagy Kate character. Sure, she blew up her dad’s house back in the States and usually packed heat, but Kate had a tender side that drove the island’s alpha males wild.



Aeon Flux

MTV’s 1991 Aeon Flux cartoon morphed into a big-budget action vehicle for Charlize Theron, who took on the wiry heroine after winning her Best Actress Oscar. Plagued by on-set accidents, Aeon Flux fizzled commercially, but at least the filmmakers took a stab at casting an A-list actress smack in the middle of the action.



Wonder Woman (hello)

DC Comics' crime-fighting Amazon, aka Diana Prince, has swatted swarms of supernatural nemeses for 70 years. In 1974's Wonder Woman TV series, Lynda Carter famously wore the character's all-American hot pants.



Anna

The best sci-fi villain during the 2009-10 TV season, alien leader Anna, portrayed by Morena Baccarin on ABC’s V series, proved to be as ruthless as a reptile beneath her creamy-smooth exterior.



Seven of Nine

As Star Trek: Voyager character Seven of Nine, Jeri Ryan deserves a special mention for becoming the biggest fanboy superstar of her generation. She set the stage for sci-fi sex symbols like Tricia Helfer’s Number Six in Battlestar Galactica and Alessandra Torresani in Caprica.

SOURCE

This list is missing quite a few. I'll put in some honorable mentions (which should technically be on the list but whatever...)




Storm



The Bride



The Birds of Prey



Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts



Cutie Honey



Mireille Bouquet and Kirika Yuumura



Mulan



Bayonetta



Charlie's Angels



Thelma & Louise



Princess Leia Organa




Morrigan



Nikita


Eowyn



The Women of Neon Genesis Evangelion



Hermione Granger


Olivia Benson



Dana Scully



Juliet Burke



Sun Hwa-Kwon



Nikita (Original Series)



Rachel Stein


And last but not least...


The Women of Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire)

♡haute new couple♡

March 24, 2012, 1:29 pm

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Josh Hutcherson Chats Up Emma Roberts in NYC

It looks like Emma Roberts is a pretty big fan of The Hunger Games.

The Scream 4 actress was spotted hanging out with Peeta himself, actor Josh Hutcherson, outside of ping pong club Spin New York Thursday night in New York City.

The sighting, of course, was totally harmless – and not all that surprising, considering they are reportedly attached to Neil Patrick Harris’ directorial debut, Aaron and Sarah.

Still, given that Emma is fresh off her relationship with Chord Overstreet, we have to ask: Would Emma and Josh make a cute couple?


b♡o♡w

Boy Bands Are Back, Wholesome or Sexy

March 24, 2012, 1:30 pm

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When the boy band One Direction this week became the first British group to top the Billboard 200 chart with its debut album — a feat not even the Beatles or Coldplay could pull off — many music fans caught onto a trend that tech-savvy teenage girls have known about for months: Boy bands are hot again.

Not only did One Direction sell 176,000 copies of its album, “Up All Night,” in its first week of release, but the group — whose members ages range from 17 to 20 — has generated mobs of swooning girls everywhere it plays. Nearly 10,000 fans showed up on March 12 for the group’s first television performance in the United States on the “Today” show.

At the same time, the Wanted, another British boy band with a slightly older, sexier vibe, has had a Top 10 hit single on the American charts for weeks with “Glad You Came,”currently at No. 3. And Mindless Behavior, a group of teenage boys from Los Angeles whose songs shade toward R&B and hip-hop, has sold 237,000 copies of its first album, “#1 Girl,” since its release in September, when it made its debut at No. 7 on the albums chart.

“Boy bands are so back, in such a big way — I’ve been saying it for about a month now,” said Sharon Dastur, program director for Z100 (WHTZ 100.3 FM) in New York. “Music is always very cyclical,” she continued. “We had the New-Kids-on-the-Block time and the ’NSync-Backstreet Boys time, and it’s that time again.”

But the definition of a boy band seems to have changed somewhat. Neither One Direction nor the Wanted uses choreographed dance moves like those American bands of a decade ago. And the Wanted has laced its songs with references to partying and sexual hookups, putting a new spin on the usually wholesome formula.

One Direction was formed by Simon Cowell when the boys tried individually for the British version of the “X Factor” in 2010. Mr. Cowell persuaded them to join forces and compete as a group. After they ended up in third place that season, Mr. Cowell signed them to his Syco music label, a division of Sony. Last year they gained fame in Britain with their hit “What Makes You Beautiful.”

The song is an upbeat declaration of love to a simple “La Bamba” chord progression, in which a boy tells an insecure girl that she is beautiful but doesn’t know it. (What teenage girl does not want to hear that message?) Its members — Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik — all look as if they have yet to shave, have distinct hairstyles and are deemed by their fans to be cute in different ways, a prerequisite for boy bands, since part of the fun is having a favorite member to pine for.

Steve Barnett, the chairman of Columbia Records, said it was not a difficult decision to sign One Direction. “Other artists in that category had gotten a little older,” he said. “I just thought there was a void, and maybe they could seize and hold it.”

But Mr. Barnett and his team decided to reverse the usual pattern of releasing a single on radio, then bringing the band to America to do concerts. Instead the label mounted a four-month marketing campaign aimed at building a fan base through social media before a single was ever released or played on the radio here.

Then a social media campaign asked fans to sign petitions and to enter video competitions to win a concert in their town. (Dallas won, and One Direction will perform a concert there on Saturday; the group will play two dates in the New York area in May as part of a national tour.)

The strategy worked. The band’s Facebook followers in the United States rose to 400,000 from 40,000, label executives said. That One Direction topped the American chart underscores how powerful social media sites have become in marketing groups. “What Makes You Beautiful” sold more than 131,000 copies in its first week, even though it had yet to be played on the radio. Radio programmers were flooded with calls from fans.

“Now they are calling the radio station, and the radio station is scratching its head, saying, ‘We don’t even have that record yet,’ ” said Johnny Wright, who managed New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys and ’NSync. “It’s almost like the return of the Beatles. I call it hype, but it’s positive hype because it’s all real. It’s not manufactured. No one paid these kids.”

The Wanted was assembled through a mass audition in 2009 by Ashley Tabor, the president of Global Talent in Britain, the same way that boy bands like ’NSync and the Backstreet Boys were put together by the impresario Lou Pearlman. Armed with songs by the English hit-maker Steve Mac, the Wanted has since released two albums in Britain and had a string of five Top 10 singles there.

Signed to Mercury Records in the United States, the Wanted has had a slower buildup than One Direction. “Glad You Came” at first failed to gain traction when it was released last October. But the song’s popularity started to rise rapidly after the band arrived in January and played on “The Ellen Degeneres Show,” then started a tour of sold-out theaters. When the television show “Glee” covered the song on Feb. 21, it vaulted into the Top 10, where it currently stands at No. 3.

The five members — Tom Parker, Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness and Nathan Sykes — range in age from 18 to 23. Mr. George, the lead singer, wears a military-short crew cut and always seems to need a shave.

Their lyrics are also less innocent than those of One Direction. Their backing tracks groove with four-on-the-floor rhythms and have the electronic texture of dance music. The video for “Glad You Came” shows them picking up girls at Ibiza discos and slipping off with them for intimate encounters. (The Wanted will perform on Long Island at the Paramount in Huntington, N.Y., on Sunday.)

“They are the anti-boy band,” said Scooter Braun, who manages the group. “They drink. They party. They are not shy to speak about it.”

Though the British tend to produce new boy bands every couple of years, America has gone through a long dry spell since ’NSync and the Backstreet Boys were at their height in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Jonas Brothers have perhaps been the only boy band of consequence in the last decade.

Boy bands are also expensive to form, requiring songwriters, managers and backup musicians, and sometimes tutors. Record labels are reluctant to invest. “Not everybody can put it together,” said Walter Millsap, who has been cultivating Mindless Behavior, a quartet of 14-year-olds, for four years. “That’s why we have it in spurts.”

That may change now. “You will see more bands coming from America, I suspect, in the next six months,” Mr. Wright said, “because now that the labels are feeling like it is popular again, and there is a way to make money, they cannot sit on the sidelines.”

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Favorite boy band? Thoughts on the new crop of boy bands?

Miley Cyrus Taking Private Jet With Liam Hemsworth In LA

March 24, 2012, 1:30 pm

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♀ Tulisa is feminism's new hero

March 24, 2012, 1:30 pm

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Viewed from its highest point, the internet is a landscape of celebrity sex tapes. Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian made the genre famous. Their careers to date have still to escape the shadow of those dark videos – and still the films keep coming.

Last week, a clip starring the 23-year-old X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos and an apparently disembodied penis appeared online. But, in an unprecedented move, during the ensuing tabloid racket and the censorious blogs with their variations on the word "slut", Tulisa responded with a new video.

Also shot in dim light, in what looks like the corridor of her flat, she told fans "her side of the story". "When you share an intimate moment with someone you love, that you care about and trust," she said, holding up her holiday pictures of ex-boyfriend Justin Edwards, the man who leaked the clip, "you never imagine that at any point it will be shared with people around the world." She added: "It's a pretty tough time for me, but I don't feel I should be the one to take the heat for it. This is something he took upon himself, to put the footage online... I'm not going to sit here and be violated or taken advantage of."

She tweeted a link on Wednesday; watching it I whooped out loud. I did so because, as well as being a threat to the traditional post-sex tape narrative, where the woman is quietly disgraced, this was an unlikely feminist moment.


A noisy, true, important message to Tulisa's teenage fans. They may well have some personal experience of this kind off thing – 40% of teenagers have texted naked pictures of themselves or received pictures of their acquaintances. In a survey of 11,000 teens, aged 11-14, four in 10 thought it was "appropriate" to forward their friends' pictures of classmates topless: the survey showed a significant shift from a time when young people merely viewed internet pornography, to today, when they create it.

Much has changed, too, since Anderson's day, when the stars of a sex tape, baby oiled, siliconed and candlelit, were in on it together: however coy the couple might have been when a film went viral, the woman was probably complicit in its release. In order for a tape to leak 10 years ago, an actual "tape" would physically have to change hands. Today, sex tapes (sex MP4s? Sex mov.files?) can be filmed covertly and lurk on many boys' iPhones, but the notoriety that the woman must live with when they're screened remains.

As much as I whooped at Tulisa's video, I can only imagine how uplifting it might have been for young people to watch; people like "A", a girl I know whose teenage years were torturous because an ex-boyfriend forwarded intimate pictures of her to his new girlfriend, who went on to publish them online.



The pictures inspired violent bullying, led to weeks off school, friends lost and exams failed. When she tried to change schools her teacher recommended against it, sighing that a move wouldn't be enough – the pictures had penetrated the whole town. The pictures remain there, I'm sure, engraved on the internet like initials on a desk. A's ex-boyfriend, incidentally, left for sixth form a hero.

Sex tapes are not uncommon, but what is rare is for their female star to be unapologetic on their release. To discuss ideas of shame, intimacy, consent and privacy, instead of agreeing to a sad-faced interview in the Sun, pictured in polo-neck and natural makeup to denote modesty – that's unusual.

There's no shame in happy sex, Tulisa asserts. The shame should lie with the person who uses it as currency against his partner's wishes, who uses a record of it as a weapon. She's not in the wrong for having sex, for enjoying sex, or for being filmed – her (until now anonymous) ex should be ashamed for betraying her, embarrassing her and attempting to damage her career.

And to broadcast this message on her own terms to "tell her side of the story" without the firm, clammy hand of a manager or editor influencing her words, does a lot to chip away at our solid wall of cynicism. After all, much of the attraction of a celebrity sex tape is the rare opportunity to see a star un-PRed – the "real" them.

It's always fascinating when a celebrity reclaims the power of a scandal, ripping it from the claws of the media, then handing it back, reshaped.

Like Max Mosley, who used the News of the World's exposé of his S&M parties with prostitutes to first sue the paper for breaching his privacy, then bring a case against the UK's privacy laws in an attempt to force the press to warn subjects before publishing stories about them, Tulisa has bitten back.

In today's muddy, laddie world, we take our feminist moments where we find them. Just as it was exciting to hear celebrities taking on the press during the Leveson inquiry, it's thrilling to watch Tulisa take revenge on both the man who exploited her and the commentators who passed judgment. And using the tools most often exploited to hurt girls (Twitter, where hashtags like '#iHateWomen' trend, and YouTube, under each video a stained ribbon of sexist comments) in order to deliver her message too.

Imagine if every shamed female celebrity, every reality star pictured smoking while pregnant, every untoned actress holidaying in a bikini, were to do the same. A high-pitched cacophony of raging women, broadcasting on YouTube, their hair slightly fallen after a day dodging doorsteppers. Women off the telly but without autocues, reminding us that they go deeper than an image, or than a simple statement from their manager.



At a time when our privacy seems to be leaking out from between our clasped hands, with Google revealing plans to track our movements across the vast, bumpy map of the web and Twitter admitting that it grabs users' address book data, Tulisa's is a modern lesson in image management.

When embarrassing information leaves your control today it's not just your family that might see it. It's not just a diary left open on a bed, a sheaf of nude beach snaps forgotten on the counter, it's information that the whole world can access.

When this happens (and celebrities, darlings, it will) instead of hiding away, or reading out the same scripted apology we've heard a thousand times, one that "regrets" and "takes responsibility for actions", one that says sorry for "letting down fans", Tulisa's is a guide to guerrilla action.

By reclaiming the internet tools, by taking ownership of the event, by speaking out "in her own words" and refusing to be shamed, she's sketched out plans that every scandalous soap star and broken politician can follow. Inside, I'm still whooping.

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Meet New UK Superstar Conor Maynard

March 24, 2012, 1:42 pm

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19 year old Conor Maynard is the next big thing out of the UK, armed with a fresh, young style and an energetic pop R&B sound. Radio stations and TV channels have been adding his debut single and video, "Can't Say No," to their playlists in ever-increasing numbers. BBC Radio 1's Scott Mills recently crowned the song with the coveted 'Record of the Week' title, joining hits by Nicki Minaj, LMFAO, and David Guetta.



Conor's growing fan base, known as 'Mayniacs,' lived up to their name earlier this month by stopping traffic, singing along to "Can't Say No," and deafening bystanders with their screaming when Conor played his third-ever gig at the sold-out Islington Academy in London. The Daily Star said Conor "was swamped by hysteria as the self-dubbed Mayniacs vied for his attention and swooned each refrain of the teen idol's debut. Conor Maynard is hell-bent on a meteoric rise."

The young superstar-in-the-making was recently flown out to Miami by Pharrell Williams (N.E.R.D. front man and hit-maker for Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani and many more) to record new tracks for his debut album. The video for "Can't Say No," has had nearly 1.8 million views on Youtube with 750,000 in just one week.

"Can't Say No" is out on April 16th through Parlophone Records, with the album to follow later this Summer.





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Camille Grammer Will Not Return to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

March 24, 2012, 2:12 pm

≫ Next: The Legend of Korra: "Welcome to Republic City" Review

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Camille Grammer has decided not to come back for a third season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, a source confirms to PEOPLE. 

"She's been in discussions and at the end decided she wasn't willing to expose her personal life anymore," says the source. "She's at peace with her decision." 

Grammer also recently reached an amicable settlement with ex-husband Kelsey Grammer in the custody case of their two young children, Mason and Jude.

"She's in a great place in her life right now," says the source. "She's grown a lot in this past year and she's made some wonderful friendships [on the show]. It has steered her life in a direction she never imagined. She's ready for new challenges."

Source



Prayer circle for thebebz and fakevoices! I'll miss the fabulous dancing and side eyeing gifs + Shana Hughes shut downs

The Legend of Korra: "Welcome to Republic City" Review

March 24, 2012, 2:14 pm

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Spoiler Alert! Korra kicks ass.

Ever since Avatar: The Last Airbender ended almost four years ago, fans have been patiently waiting for another adventure to unfold in Nickelodeon's beloved bending universe. In 2010, we were led to believe that the show might find a new home on the big screen. But as we soon discovered, M. Night Shyamalan's interpretation of the material never truly rose to the occasion (and that's putting it nicely). But after series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko announced that a new animated spinoff was in the works, things finally started looking up.

Enter The Legend of Korra, the latest installment in the Avatar canon. Set 70 years after the events of The Last Airbender, the story follows Korra, the next Avatar after Aang. But unlike her predecessor, Korra has already mastered the elements of water, earth and fire by the start of the show. All that remains is airbending, which she'll have to learn from Aang's son Tenzin in Republic City, the capital of the four nations.



Right out of the gate, the pilot gives you a few bullet points on what's been going on since the end of the Hundred Year War. The first few scenes command your attention -- Avatar has never shied away from using its own terminology -- but as with The Last Airbender, the pilot does a good job of showing rather than telling. And if you're already a fan of the franchise, all the better. The casual references to old characters like Toph and Sokka are definitely a nice touch. Indeed, the first few minutes feel like a warm welcome home.

However, don't let that discourage any newcomers from tuning in. This episode is a great jumping-off point, and in some respects it's kind of a blank slate. With such a giant leap forward in the continuity, there are bound to be a few big changes to go along with it. The tone of the show has definitely shifted to favor a slightly older set. The characters are more complex, the social climate is darker and Republic City looks more like a seedy underbelly than a utopian metropolis. Where The Last Airbender felt like Feudal Japan, The Legend of Korra feels like an amalgam of that and 1920s steampunk.

Stylistically speaking, the animation is simply gorgeous. You can see how the artwork has improved, even just since 2008. The fluidity of movement and the character designs have both come so far in the last several years. I actually had to watch this episode twice because I was initially so taken with the imagery that I forgot to pay attention to some of the story. If nothing else, this pilot is a true work of art, even with the volume turned down.

So far, the characters are just as emotionally engaging as they are visually interesting. Janet Varney does a great job voicing Korra, as does J.K. Simmons as Tenzin. Zack Tyler's Aang was fine in the original show, but it's nice having some more experienced talent tossed into the mix. I'm also glad they brought back Dee Bradley Baker for Korra's polar bear dog Naga. (Oh, and don't worry -- there might be a flying bison in there too.) For a Nickelodeon production, this is some premium voice work.

All in all, the setup for the series is damn near flawless, matching up with Avatar: The Last Airbender in all the right ways. It has that perfect mix of physical comedy and heartfelt drama. And while it's still unclear what exactly the series is about, we'll no doubt be getting the skinny on Amon, the show's big baddie, very soon. (He was only briefly introduced as the leader of an anti-bending revolution in the final moments of the episode.) But until then, I can safely say that The Legend of Korra promises to be an excellent addition to the Avatar mythos, pleasing both fans and newcomers alike.




So the first two episodes premiered last night at http://www.korranation.com/. What did you guys think? I love the new crew already

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Pinterest Has Officially Banned Content Encouraging Self-harm or Self-abuse

March 24, 2012, 2:32 pm

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Pinterest, a popular site which allows users to "pin" info, links and photos onto a virtual bulletin board, updated its Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy on Friday. Among those changes is a ban on content which explicitly encourages self-harm or self-abuse.

Such a ban is not uncommon lately. The staff of micro-blogging service Tumblr recently officially prohibited blogs "that actively promote self-harm" in an attempt to fight the overwhelming amount of content which promotes or glorifies many forms of self-harm including — though unfortunately not limited to — eating disorders, self-mutilation and even suicide.

Unlike Tumblr's policy change announcement, Pinterest's did not specifically call out content which focuses on eating disorders, self-mutilation, or similar acts — but some of the language included in the newly rewritten Acceptable Use Policy is broad enough to cover those topics and more:

You agree not to post User Content that:

- Creates a risk of harm, loss, physical or mental injury, emotional distress, death, disability, disfigurement, or physical or mental illness to yourself, to any other person, or to any animal

 

As Business Insider's Jim Edwards and msnbc.com's Helen Popkin have pointed out, Pinterest has been become home to a large amount of content related to "thinspiration" — "thinspo" for short — which essentially glorifies eating disorders. Such content — which was a focus of Tumblr's ban — often features scantily clad, malnourished women, and has been bypassing Pinterest's previous no-nudity rule at such a high rate that Edwards even declared it to be the reason the site has a "porn problem."

Since Pinterest's policy changes don't go into effect until April 6, we'll have to wait to see if they cure this "porn problem" or quell the flood of content which encourages self-harm and self-abuse.

It may take well beyond the first week of April for the policy changes to have a genuine effect, based on how similar bans on content deemed inappropriate have gone. Link-sharing website Reddit's recent ban on all forums which focused on the "sexualization of children" and Tumblr's ban of self-harm-related blogs have both made a dent, but there's still plenty of clean-up to be done on Reddit and Tumblr.

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Gaga tickets sell like hot cakes in Taipei

March 24, 2012, 2:33 pm

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Taipei, March 24 (CNA) Fans scrambled for tickets to a Lady Gaga concert scheduled for May in Taipei Saturday, with the lower-priced tickets selling like hot cakes.

Sales began at 9 a.m. at the National Taiwan University Sports Center, where tickets from NT$1,800 (US$61) to NT$2,800 sold out very quickly.

The most expensive seats for the May 17 concert were priced at NT$12,800, breaking the NT$12,000 record set by American rock band the Eagles last year.

One of the "Little Monsters" -- as Lady Gaga fans are known -- paid NT$6,000 for a NT$5,800 ticket, saying he admired Gaga's talent.



The American pop diva, who promised a full-scale gig during her first visit to Taiwan for a mini concert last July, will rock local fans with hits from her album "Born This Way," her debut album "The Fame" and "The Fame Monster."

The Goth-styled show, titled "The Born This Way Ball," will also feature medieval castles and a "monster pit" in stage designs in what the diva described as "more of a musical than a concert."

The concert will take place at the Taipei World Trade CenterNangang Exhibition Hall. (Amy Huang and Scully Hsiao)

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So excited tbh, her shows and performances are always top notch compared to her peers!!!